October 2, 1997, off the coast of West Africa, international waters.
The moon was obscured by thick clouds, the sea was pitch black. Only the monotonous sound of waves hitting the hull and the harsh noise of rusting metal.
The "Far Seer" used to be a Norwegian refrigerated cargo ship, now the markings on its hull were long blurred.
It drifted slowly like a weary whale on the water about fifty nautical miles off the Guinea Gulf shoreline. Rotten fishing nets and empty oil barrels piled up on the deck as camouflage, but beneath the rusty deck, in the illegally modified cargo hold, there was another kind of "cargo".
Nicknamed "Black Mamba," Idriss Diawlo stood on the narrow bridge, staring through the salt-encrusted porthole into the darkness outside.
He was tall, wearing an ill-fitting captain's uniform, with a gemstone ring snatched from the corpse of a French colonial officer on his finger.
